Eileen G. Keefe, 87, of Anniston, AL, entered eternal life on July 16, 2000. She was a resident of Garden City for 30 years. She was the wife of James J. Keefe, who predeceased her by 21 years. She is survived by her children, James J. Keefe Jr. of Garden City, Ann Keefe Morgan of Anniston, Mary Ellen Keefe Tutone of Middle Island; their spouses, Margaret R. Keefe, H.C. Morgan and Steven L. Tutone; her grandchildren, Wendy Jane Morgan Hagen (Michael D.) of Decatur, AL, Laura Renee Morgan Durden (Steve) of Nashville, TN, Catherine E. Keefe, Margaret A. Keefe, James J. Keefe III, Lindsay Ann Tutone and Jane Christine Tutone; great-grandchildren, Mary Abigail Hagen and Michael D. Hagan III; and her cousins Edward T. Caswell of Forest Hills and W. Gilgo Beach and Kathryn Griffin of San Francisco.

Born in Brooklyn Oct. 19, 1912, she graduated from the College of New Rochelle in 1933 and worked as a personal secretary to Mrs. Walter Hoving, wife of the Chairman of Tiffany's, through the 1930s and early '40s; in 1943 she moved to Belleville, IL, where she married James J. Keefe of Brooklyn, then stationed with the Army Air Corps at Scott Field. Upon her husband's commission as a second lieutenant, the couple moved to LI residing briefly in Mineola, then in Garden City, during his assignment to the Base Judge Advocate's Office at Mitchel Field.

After the war the family settled in Garden City and her husband resumed his law practice. They raised three children and Eileen participated in St. Joseph School's PTA, which she served as president in 1958-59. She was as well active with Jim in the St. Joseph Building Campaign, which funded the raising of the present church and the Rosary Altar Society, and gave her time as a leader of the church-sponsored Girl Scout Troop. She generously supported Our Lady of the Angels Home, offering her home as the site of several fund raisers.

She was devoted to her parents and to her maiden aunt as their health failed, bringing them to Garden City and eventually into her home. When her husband was felled by a stroke, she cared for him, in Garden City and later in Anniston, until his passing in 1979. She remained in Anniston, devoted to her family there, but frequently traveled north with them to visit with the other branches of her extended family. The marriages of her children doubled her delight in them, for she now counted six sons and daughters. Each grandchild was another jewel in her trove, and all in their turn treasure times shared with her.

Her favorite prayer of St. Francis begins "Lord make me an instrument of Your peace." Growing up in Brooklyn, visiting family in New England, jouneying with her husband in the military, caring for her family in Garden City and Anniston, befriending many in all these places, she lived her faith that "it is in giving that we receive" and assures those who loved her that "in dying, we are born to eternal life."

Funeral rites were conducted at Sacred Heart Church in Anniston, where she is interred. Memorial gifts to Sacred Heart Church, PO Box 2787, Anniston, AL 36202, for its Building Fund, would be appreciated.